China to clean up southern waters affecting HK
Date: 24-Apr-02
Country: CHINA
Author: Tan Ee Lyn
Yuan Zheng, director of the environmental protection bureau in southern Guangdong province, told reporters mainland Chinese cities were working toward cleaning up their waste water.
"Every city must now have waste water treatment. For Guangdong, our waste water treatment is now 23 percent. We hope to exceed 50 percent within five years," he said on the sidelines of a forum where the pollution study was released.
The three-year study, which involved scientists from mainland China and Hong Kong, found urbanisation and heavy industrialisation around the delta have seriously polluted waters in the Pearl River estuary. Some of the water flows through Hong Kong in the summer due to wind and current changes.
"Hong Kong's current efforts to clean up the pollution of its local waters cannot succeed fully on its own without the abatement of water pollution in the Pearl River Delta," the study said.
Hong Kong treats all its waste water, but because it discharges it close to the coast there is still substantial local water pollution, said Jay Chen, a scientist on the project.
The territory's dirtiest waters were found in its famed Victoria Harbour and Lei Yue Mun, an area famous for its pricey seafood.
HEADACHE UP NORTH
But the study seemed to suggest that pollution on the mainland Chinese side was far more serious.
"It's in Hong Kong's own best interest to make sure that the pollution that is being created upstream is in fact corrected by installing industrial waste treatment facilities, sewerage treatment facilities, and so on," Gary Heinke, the principal research scientist for the project, told Reuters.
Heinke and Yuan attributed the pollution around the Pearl River Delta to a rise in population, unfettered industrialisation and construction, livestock farming, agriculture, waste water discharge, and deforestation in the last 20 years.
While Hong Kong supports a population of 6.8 million, some 20 million people live around the Pearl River Delta.
Yuan said Guangdong now spends 30 billion yuan (3.6 billion) each year to tackle pollution.
Heinke was confident that the problem could be remedied.
"It's much easier to clean up a river than it is a lake, because river refreshes as you get fresh water in, so the healing period is faster," Heinke said.
"I'm confident that 25 years maximum, we can have a clean Pearl River estuary and a clean Pearl River."